The Mystery of Happiness

How to live a soulful and spiritual life.

T. Byram Karasu, M.D. is Silverman Professor of Psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. See full bio

July 15, 2009

Enthusiast (God Within)

In his book Who Needs God, Rabbi Harold Kusner responds to why God is so hard to find by asking us to rethink the question. Perhaps we are disappointed because we are looking so hard in the wrong place, and perhaps we are taking the task too literally. Read More

July 9, 2009

Soul Giving

The human soul is a small reflective sample of a larger nature, with all its mysteries. Therefore, one must approach it with the same awe and humility one might feel in observing the skies. While every attempt at simplification will betray the soul's simplicity, every attempt to resolve its conflicts would forfeit its growth. The soul thrives in complex peacefulness and contrariness to norms. Read More

July 2, 2009

Selfish Altruism

We are genetically designed for selfish altruism. Our minds, at times, distort this genetic principle, and we begin not only to behave as "one for one" but also to expect "all for one" (in other words, me). Such tampering destroys the matrix of mutuality, the very ground of existence. Read More

June 24, 2009

One Is Made of Many

The historian Joseph Campbell says, "Compassion for me is just what the word says; it is ‘suffering with.' It is an immediate participation in the sufferering of another to such a degree that you forget yourself and your own safety and spontaneously do what is necessary." This definition reflects a sympathetic and empathic reaching out to others. Read More

June 17, 2009

Transforming Passion into Compassion

The transformation of passion to compassion is one of the everyday miracles about which we occasionally hear or read. An old cleric lived an utterly modest life, invested his meager income, accumulated millions of dollars, and then gave it to an educational institution; a full-time secretary, who also has a large family to look after, spends one evening a week in a hospice as a volunteer. Read More

June 10, 2009

Belonging by Compassion

Excessive assertion of a philosophy of self interferes with belonging, and excessive expression of relational philosophy forfeits individuality; we have to keep both in check. Deep down we all want to belong through our own individual and cultural ways. Read More

June 3, 2009

It Could Have Happened to You

In isolation, one's sorrow becomes unbearable, partly because one feels singled out for pain and wrongly presumes that others are just fine. For that particular moment, such an assumption may be correct, but across the life span no one is immune from the vicissitudes of living. Read More

May 27, 2009

Collage of Self

Although Thelma's family moved around during her early years, they always lived in small, homogenous towns in the Midwest, almost identical to each other. In spite of the fact that they remained relatively uninvolved, they benefitted from these communities, which provided stability and continuity even to an unstable and dysfunctional family like theirs. Read More

May 20, 2009

Growing Down: Becoming by Belonging

Both psychologists and philosophers assert that one has to "be" before one can "belong." But being and belonging feed into each other. Being is not a static state; it is ever evolving; one acquires only degrees of being. In fact, it may be more accurate to refer to "becoming" rather than "being." Belonging becomes intricately woven into the process of one's becoming. Read More

May 14, 2009

The Love of Belonging

The parent-children unit is the supreme regulating principle of life. If one extends the same concept to the parents of the mother and father, that influence becomes even more powerful. What gives such a presence to the family is a deeply grounded and lasting intergenerational relationship that establishes internal security in its members. Read More

Happiness Basics

Research on how to increase positive moods and capitalize on your strengths has proliferated lately thanks to the positive psychology movement, and has shed light on ongoing insights into personality, mood, and cognition.

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